There are a few ways to interpret these data. Alibaba and Yahoo Japan could both be overvalued, thereby understating the true value of Yahoo’s core business. Alibaba’s rapid growth as a financial-services firm might be unsustainable, for example. Or it’s possible that Yahoo’s shares are too cheap, in which case Mayer, her executive team and the company’s directors should be pushed to translate the business’s true value into market capitalization. Or maybe the markets have it right and Yahoo’s business is hopeless.

Or Wallstreet is just a bunch of hopeless bullshit when it comes to setting the value of a company.